The internet, as usual, perpetuates a lot of errors, and makes up its own new ones. With the writer "Francis Stevens" one hardly knows where to begin correcting the errors. First, there is her name. She was born "Gertrude M. Barrows" (the M. is sometimes claimed to have been Mabel, but this is unconfirmed, as the state of Minnesota, and the county in which she was born, do not have birth records going back that far; yet in the 1895 Minnesota Census she appears with her family as "Myrtle"--which would seemingly be her middle-name, as she was perhaps known familiarly). Her first published story in 1904 was signed "G.M. Barrows." She married in 1908, a man surnamed Bennett who died in 1910. She published all of the rest of her stories between 1917 and 1923, under the byline "Francis Stevens." During this time she was known as Gertrude Bennett. A decade after she ceased writing, she married a man surnamed Gaster, and was known as Gertrude Gaster for the rest of her life (she died in 1948). But the internet has renamed her "Gertrude Barrows Bennett." not a form of her name that she used. Similarly, modernity knows Poe as "Edgar Allan Poe"--not by the name "Edgar A. Poe" with which he signed his writings.
Barrows's birthyear is also mistakenly given as 1884, the year she herself gave out in later life. But early census records make it clear she was born in 1883.
And currently, there is a a supposed photograph of her that comes up when you search google for "Gertrude Barrows Bennett." Only it's not her.
Here is the erroneous photograph. The earliest appearance of it I can find on the web comes from 2018 in a twitter post here (the twitter thread contains other poppycock).
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| Not "Francis Stevens" |
Here is the writer "Francis Stevens"--in detail from a 1927 photograph, one of the few of her that passed on to her grandchildren.
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| The real "Francis Stevens" in 1927 |
Is it She?
ReplyDeletehttps://data.fantlab.ru/images/autors/8630?r=1492545921
Nope, that's apparently not her. It might be of the same woman as the "fake" one above. It shows up as a "Gertrude Bennett" (no date) here:
ReplyDeletehttps://broadway.cas.sc.edu/content/gertrude-bennett-0
For what it's worth, the same photo is elsewhere identified as Gertrude Berg (1899-1966), nee Edelstein, an American actress.
In any case it doesn't seem to be "our" Francis Stevens.
And there are details about the theatrical "Gertrude Bennett" (who performed on Broadway from 1898 through 1902) here:
ReplyDeletehttps://broadway.cas.sc.edu/content/gertrude-bennett
Maybe you can help me with identification of Wallace West.
DeleteI found out this photo long ago and have doubts that it is he.
https://data.fantlab.ru/images/autors/12510?r=1492545834
I've never researched on Wallace West.
DeleteThe Library of Congress authority record indicates that the form "Gertrude Barrows Bennett" comes from the about-the-author information in the 2004 collection The Nightmare and Other Tales of Dark Fantasy. So you can blame the University of Nebraska Press, which published it. In any case, "Francis Stevens" is now the authorized name heading for this author.
ReplyDeleteAs for "Edgar Allan Poe" that is the form of the name which most posthumous publications have used, regardless of how he signed himself during his lifetime. As that is how he is most generally known and how most people will consequently look him up, it makes sense for that to be the access point.
I think it is merely a matter of respect to refer to an author in the way they wish to be referred to, whatever posterity (or librarians) may say. Every time I see "John R.R. Tolkien" I still cringe, don't you? :-)
DeleteP.S. There is other silliness that began with that University of Nebraska collection too.
DeleteYes, but LC creates thousands of entries and doesn't have the facilities to second-guess what publications tell them. That's why I said that it's the University of Nebraska's fault. I've created entries for that database, and if I spent too much time on speculative research I'd get chewed out.
DeleteI agree, "John R.R. Tolkien" is annoying, but it's also rare, and not perpetrated by his publisher. Rarer than "Tolkein" which annoys me more, at any rate.